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Saturday, 28 April 2012

More than one involved in Aadhaar scam: Cops

TNN | Apr 28, 2012, 05.28AM ISTHYDERABAD: Talking to TOI, UIDIA deputy director general Ajay Bhushan Pandey, who landed in the city on Friday evening, said that they stumbled upon the fraud on April 20 when it was noticed that Ali has made 30,000 enrolments in just a span of two months, a feat that would normally take two years. "After a closer verification, we found that the operator has enrolled over 800 people in the physically disabled quota and the state government was immediately alerted," the DDG said.

Even though so far only the cards enrolled by Mohammed under the disabled quota proven to be fake, investigating agencies are suspecting that a major share of the 30,000 cards issued by him could also fall in the same category as no operator can enroll 30,000 genuine people in a span of two months.

The preliminary probe by the investigating agencies has revealed that majority of the 30,000 cards enrolled by the accused have been dispatched to the `individuals' but UID officials say that as per their knowledge none of the cards in the physically disabled quota have been dispatched.

Police officials are tight lipped about the entire episode but according to sources, Ali told them during the interrogation that he executed the fraud along with other associates for money. "Looking at the size of enrolment, there is more than one person involved in the fraud," the Deputy DG said. Police are now trying to crosscheck whether there was a terror angle to the fraud.

In response to the incident, UID has temporarily blocked all the 30,000 cards enrolled by Mohammed and they have stopped enrolment of people under physically disabled quota throughout the nation. Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that once they are through with this probe in Hyderabad, they will check the enrolments of all other regions in the country. In addition to the deputy director general, UIDAI's chairman Nandan Nilekani is also sending another senior staff member to Hyderabad to look into the technical loopholes in the enrolment process.